A Little History In and Around Buffalo, NY

  as published in the Tonawanda News  7 LUCIDOL SUITS WILL BE HEARD IN ONE COURT CASE Legal actions steaming from seven deaths in the Sept. 23, 1953, Lucidol explosion will be tried together, Justice Jogn S. March of Supreme Court ruled in Buffalo yesterday.  Under his ruling, four injury suits, which with the death actions total about $1,250,000, will be heard in a second suit. Four of the original 11 death actions have been settled.  An explosion at the Lucidol plant of Novadel-Agene Corp. in Military Rd., Town of Tonawanda, took 11 lives and inured scores of others.  All the lawsuits are against Buffalo Electric Co. Inc., and Joseph Davis Inc., both of Buffalo. The concerns were doing work at the plant at the time of the explosion.  The trails are expected within the next few months, with the death actions given priority.  Plaintiffs in the seven death actions are: Delores Holzman, 31 Calhorn Pl, Town of Tonawanda, for the estate of Allan T. Holzman...

As published in the Tonawanda News: Deadly fumes drop 8 fireman at Lucidol Plant by Tom Ernst NEWS Staff Writer Lucidol officials are still uncertain today as to exactly what caused some 150-200 pounds of organic peroxide to begin to decompose and emit choking fumes that felled eight Town of Tonawanda fire fighters yesterday afternoon. One fireman was still in Kenmore Mercy Hospital today. The other seven were released after treatment yesterday. Listed as "fair" condition was Joseph Spath, 29, of 196 Oakridge Ave., a Sheridan Park Fire Co. volunteer. All eight were stricken when the "inhaled a toxic substance" hospital officials reported. Some 100 fireman from throughout the town responded when the alarm was turned in about 12:45 p.m. from the Lucidol Division plant at 1740 Military Road, near Sheridan Drive. A chemical reaction, possible caused when a faulty cooling unit allowed the compounds temperature to rise, causing billowing smoke to rise fro...

As published in The Evening News of the Tonawandas: FINAL TOLL OF DEAD IN BLAST MAY BE 11 Efforts were being made today at the Erie County Morgue to identify two bodies which were recoved from debris of the Lucidol plant. More gruesome, however, was the task of morgue attendants who were trying to piece together what appear to be parts of several bodies of men killed in Wednesday's tragic explosion. Seven of the blast victims have been identified. There are four men still unaccounted for. The final death toll is expected to be 11. While emergency workers continued to probe the Town of Tonawanda plant rubble, the Erie County Medical Examiner's office was trying every known means of identifying the two bodies so badly charred as to be nearly unrecognizable. Parts of bodies in the morgue defied easy identification. \ Last body identified was that of Thomas Williams Jr., 426 High St., Buffalo. The NEWS yesterday was the first Niagara Frontier newspaper to list MR. Wlli...